Clues emerge but no arrests yet as New York police hunt health CEO’s killer | Brian Thompson shooting

After the CEO of United Healthcare Brian Thompson it was shot dead outside a Manhattan hotel on Wednesday morning at “brazen targeted attack”, clue after clue quickly emerged.

Surveillance video appears to show the gunman leaving a nearby subway station at 6:15 a.m. and buying two energy bars, as well as a bottle of water, at a nearby Starbucks. CNN reported.

Moments later, the suspect, wearing a brown jacket, a face mask and a gray backpack, was recorded meandering near a deli and around 6:30 a.m. appeared to be using the phone, surveillance video appears to show. About half an hour after he left the subway, video showed him walking to the hotel where Thompson was headed for United’s annual investor conference and waiting outside.

The suspect approached Thompson from behind and opened fire, then approached him and continued to fire, continuing to go on a rampage even after he stopped to clear a gun jam. The shooter crossed the street, slipped through an alley and got on an electric bike. Then head north to Central Park.

As police combed the crime scene and expanded search efforts, the abundance of evidence grew. This was reported by police sources New York Post that the bullets used in Thompson’s death appeared to be emblazoned with the words “deny,” “take down,” and “defend.”

Since these words are similar to 2010 book Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Won’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It raised questions about whether this shooting was related to criticism of the health insurance industry.

Police reportedly found a water bottle and a cell phone in the alley through which the shooter fled. The best lead may have turned up at a hostel on the Upper West Side, on surveillance video. He removed his mask, in what CNN described as “moment of flirtation“, and smiled widely at an employee.

Despite copious amounts of surveillance footage, decorated bullets and physical evidence, the shooter remains unidentified and at large for a crime committed in one of this nation’s most policed ​​cities. His motive remains unknown and speculation has run rampant: was the shooting a professional hit or was the killer simply disgruntled with an unpopular health insurance company? Or are there other reasons that are not yet known?

Other high-profile murders offer lessons about not jumping to conclusions after they have spawned incorrect theories about motive. Cash App founder Bob Lee 2023 murder in San Francisco has spawned theories about homeless killers and commentary on the city’s brutal crime scene. But the accused killer, Nima Momeni, was a consultant who prosecutors said was retaliating for an attack on his sister by Lee’s alleged dealer, to whom he believed the tech guru had introduced her. Jurors are deliberating on this case.

c New York City, Anthony Comello was charged with the 2019 murder. of Francesco “Frankie Boy” Cali, alleged leader of the Gambino mob family. Before Comello was arrested, the death raised concerns about the possibility of mob warfare. As it turned out, the suspect believed he was helping Donald Trump and believed Cali was part of the “deep state.”

Vernon J. Gebert, a retired NYPD lieutenant commander who wrote Practical Homicide Investigation, considered a seminal textbook on homicide investigation, does not believe the suspect is a professional killer.

“It’s too personal from my point of view,” said Gebert, who was not involved in the investigation but offered his perspective based on his years of experience. “Just by leaving some of these clues, it’s like somebody’s making a statement.”

“Professional people don’t make statements – they just do their job.”

Even though there’s a lot of evidence, Gebert said, that doesn’t necessarily mean a suspect will be caught immediately. Police can collect fingerprints and DNA from a water bottle or cell phone, for example, but that doesn’t lead to a suspect if that information isn’t in a database that law enforcement can access.

“That person could be someone who has never committed a crime before in their life,” Gebert said. “If you’re not in the system, you’re not in the system.”

Gebert said he believes the killer will be caught because footage of the suspect’s face is now available to the public across America and the world.

“His face is all over TV right now, there’s a $10,000 reward,” Gebert said. “Someone, somewhere will know him, because this case has international coverage.”

Mary Ellen O’Toole, who worked as an FBI profiler integral to catching the Unabomber killer, said the killer displayed dedicated behavior but made some mistakes.

Looking at the initial set of facts, “that tells me that the shooter did a little homework — quite a bit of planning.” O’Toole noted that the shooting took place outside a large hotel with multiple entrances, but he still knew how to make contact with the victim.

“Where did he get this information? We don’t know.”

O’Toole also noted that the gun has a suppressor on it that is placed over the barrel of the gun to make the firing less audible.

“It appears the gunman was planning an open shooting.” Unless you’ve turned the volume down, it can draw attention to you,” O’Toole said. be one way or another.”

Among the most interesting aspects to O’Toole: the shooter kept his cool when his gun jammed, which can be difficult even for trained law enforcement professionals.

“When you’re at a shooting range, sometimes when people’s guns jam, it can be aggravating, it can be stressful, it can make you angry,” O’Toole said. “If you watch the video of the shooter, there was none of that.”

“There was no conversation between the shooter and the victim. He didn’t come there to have a conversation – he came there to kill an executive.

As for the trail of trail evidence left behind, O’Toole believes investigators failed to alert to the fact that the suspect left behind shell casings and bullets, as well as a bottle of water nearby.

“They think, I’m sure, they were left there as a decoy or he let his guard down,” O’Toole said. “A good analyst or a good researcher will not lock himself into one theory.”

As of press time, the shooter has not been apprehended. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is under accusation of alleged bribery and campaign-related crimes, said Friday that police were working quickly to catch the killer.

“When you look at the number of hours since the shooting of a fully masked man and the need to bring him to justice, you understand how fast the New York police department is moving,” Adams said on the 1010 WINS Morning Drive radio show.

“It is clear that this is not a random act. Our preliminary investigation treats this as a targeted shooting, but we are getting closer to catching him and getting this dangerous man off the streets of our country.

With the Associated Press